Some people say, apparently with great pride, that "17 percent of electricity in Saskatchewan is generated by renewables!". It's not clear why since it is hardly an impressive figure.

Need it be said that 17 percent from renewables means 83 percent is non-renewable? For Saskatchewan, that is all coal and gas.

Seventeen percent compares poorly with other Canadian provinces, Canada, other countries and the World.

Looking first at Canada: relative to all other provinces Saskatchewan has the second lowest (after Alberta) use of renewables and, by extension, the second highest use of non-renewable power generation resources.

Not much to boast about there.

Saskatchewan compared with the World

..and here is the same for the World. It shows a clear global trend, since 2007, of a world transitioning toward more renewables. In the same time period Saskatchewan's use of renewables has been volatile around 22 percent of the total.

The first point of note is that the World now generates more of its electricity from renewables than Saskatchewan.

The second point is that, following dry conditions last year,there has been a 25 percent fall in the amount of Saskatchewan electricity generated from renewables: from 23 percent in 2014 to 17 percent for 2015.

Saskatchewan compared with 20 Leading Countries

Source: BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2016

This chart shows similar information but on a country specific basis for the top 20 countries and with a breakdown by renewable type.

Norway is far and away the leader with 97 percent of its total electricity coming from renewables. Canada is at number 6 and, if Saskatchewan was a country, it would be number 34: just ahead of Russia (16 percent) but behind Uzbekistan (19 percent), China (24 percent), the Philippines (26 percent), Pakistan (33 percent) as well as the other countries shown on the chart.